The Billboard Hot 100 has had two kinds of No. 1 song in 2026, and they behave nothing alike.
The first kind arrives at the top. A big name releases a single, every fan streams it in the same seven days, and it debuts at No. 1. Eight songs have done that this year. The second kind climbs. It builds on radio and in playlists for months, reaches No. 1 late, and then keeps coming back. One song has done that, and it has held the top spot for longer than the eight debuts put together.
Below is every Hot 100 No. 1 of 2026 through the chart dated October 31, 2026, then what the list shows once you count it.
The short version
- 44 chart weeks, 13 different No. 1 songs. Eleven reached No. 1 for the first time in 2026. Two were carried over from 2025.
- Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” held No. 1 for 25 of the 44 weeks (57%). It got there in seven separate runs. With its 23rd week it broke the all-time Hot 100 record for most weeks at No. 1, per Billboard.
- Eight of the eleven new No. 1s debuted at No. 1. Those eight held the top spot for 14 weeks combined, and none of them lasted more than three.
- Taylor Swift had the most No. 1s: four songs, eight weeks. “I Knew It, I Knew You” was her 15th Hot 100 No. 1, the third-most of any artist.
Every Hot 100 No. 1 of 2026
| Chart date | Song | Artist | How it got there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 3 | All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | Holiday return |
| Jan. 10–17 | The Fate of Ophelia | Taylor Swift | Carried over from 2025 |
| Jan. 24–31 | I Just Might | Bruno Mars | Debut |
| Feb. 7 | Aperture | Harry Styles | Debut |
| Feb. 14 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Climb |
| Feb. 21 | DTMF | Bad Bunny | Climb, after the Super Bowl halftime show |
| Feb. 28 | Opalite | Taylor Swift | Climb |
| Mar. 7 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return |
| Mar. 14 | I Just Might | Bruno Mars | Return |
| Mar. 21–28 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return |
| Apr. 4 | Swim | BTS | Debut |
| Apr. 11–25 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return |
| May 2 | Drop Dead | Olivia Rodrigo | Debut |
| May 9–23 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return |
| May 30 – June 6 | Janice STFU | Drake | Debut |
| June 13 | Hate That I Made You Love Me | Ariana Grande | Debut |
| June 20–27 | I Knew It, I Knew You | Taylor Swift | Debut |
| July 4 – Oct. 3 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return, 14 straight weeks |
| Oct. 10–24 | Patient Zero | Taylor Swift | Debut |
| Oct. 31 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | Return |
Chart dates are Billboard’s issue dates, which run about a week after the tracking week closes. Week-by-week placements are as compiled in Wikipedia’s list of 2026 Hot 100 No. 1s, which cites Billboard’s chart page for every week. Each “Debut” and “Climb” link goes to Billboard’s own report for that week.
The record: how “Choosin’ Texas” got to 25 weeks
“Choosin’ Texas” was not an overnight hit. It first reached No. 1 on the chart dated February 14. Then it did something no song this year has managed. It lost the top spot and got it back, again and again.
Count the runs and there are seven: one week in February, one in early March, two in late March, three in April, three in May, fourteen straight from July 4 to October 3, and the chart dated October 31. Every song that knocked it off was a debut or a short climb, and each one held No. 1 for one to three weeks before “Choosin’ Texas” returned.
With its 23rd week, Billboard reported that it had broken the all-time Hot 100 record for most weeks at No. 1. The song it passed, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, built its total one holiday season at a time. “Choosin’ Texas” did it inside one calendar year. In May, Langley also held the top two places at once, with “Choosin’ Texas” at No. 1 and “Be Her” at No. 2, per Billboard.
| Song | Artist | Weeks at No. 1 in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | 25 |
| I Just Might | Bruno Mars | 3 |
| Patient Zero | Taylor Swift | 3 |
| The Fate of Ophelia | Taylor Swift | 2 |
| Janice STFU | Drake | 2 |
| I Knew It, I Knew You | Taylor Swift | 2 |
| All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | 1 |
| Aperture | Harry Styles | 1 |
| DTMF | Bad Bunny | 1 |
| Opalite | Taylor Swift | 1 |
| Swim | BTS | 1 |
| Drop Dead | Olivia Rodrigo | 1 |
| Hate That I Made You Love Me | Ariana Grande | 1 |
| Total | 44 |
Debuts and climbers
Split the eleven new No. 1s of 2026 by how they reached the top and the gap is plain.
| How it reached No. 1 | Songs | Weeks at No. 1 in 2026 | Average weeks per song |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debuted at No. 1 | 8 | 14 | 1.75 |
| Climbed to No. 1 | 3 | 27 | 9.0 |
| Carried over from 2025 | 2 | 3 | 1.5 |
The three climbers are “Choosin’ Texas” (25 weeks), Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” (1), which reached No. 1 the week after his Super Bowl halftime show drew 128.2 million viewers, and Taylor Swift’s “Opalite” (1). Remove “Choosin’ Texas” and the climbers average one week, the same as most debuts. So this is not a general rule that climbing beats debuting. It is one song that outlasted everything released against it.
What the debuts do show is how front-loaded a big release has become. A star’s core audience plays a new single in its first tracking week, which is enough to win the debut. The drop starts the week after, and none of this year’s eight debuts held on for longer than three weeks. Drake’s “Janice STFU” debuted at No. 1 in the same week he placed a single-week record 42 songs on the chart. It held for two weeks.
Taylor Swift’s year
Swift has the most No. 1 songs of 2026 with four, and they reached the top four different ways:
- “The Fate of Ophelia” carried two weeks into January. With them it became her first song to spend 10 weeks at No. 1.
- “Opalite” climbed to No. 1 on the chart dated February 28, her 14th Hot 100 No. 1.
- “I Knew It, I Knew You”, from the Toy Story 5 soundtrack, debuted at No. 1 in June. It was her 15th No. 1, the third-most in the chart’s history. It was also the first No. 1 from a Pixar film, and the third from an animated Disney film after “A Whole New World” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, per Billboard.
- “Patient Zero” debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated October 10 and held for three straight weeks, the longest unbroken run of any 2026 debut.
Her four songs add up to eight weeks at No. 1, the second-highest total of the year. Langley’s one song still has three times as many.
How the 2026 chart year compares
Billboard’s chart year doesn’t follow the calendar. Its year-end tracking period runs from late October to the following October. So the songs dominating this list are the ones that will decide the 2026 year-end Hot 100, which Billboard publishes in early December. For the last two decades of that chart, see our year-end charts archive. It runs from 2000 to 2025, with the No. 1 song, the No. 1 album and the artist of the year for each.
The albums chart ran differently this year: no album held No. 1 for more than five weeks. The full list, with weekly units, is in our companion piece on every Billboard 200 No. 1 album of 2026.
Method
- Source. Every chart week from the issue dated January 3, 2026 to the issue dated October 31, 2026, taken from Wikipedia’s list of 2026 Hot 100 No. 1s. It cites Billboard’s chart page and Billboard’s weekly chart report for each week.
- Debut vs. climb. A song counts as a “debut” when Billboard’s own report for its first week at No. 1 says it debuted there. Every one is linked in the table above.
- Counting. Weeks are counted only inside 2026 chart dates. That is why “The Fate of Ophelia” shows two weeks here rather than its career total of ten.
- Updates. This page will be updated as new charts post through the end of the year. Last updated: October 28, 2026, through the chart dated October 31, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What song has been No. 1 the longest in 2026? Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has spent 25 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2026, through the chart dated October 31. It reached No. 1 on the chart dated February 14 and returned to the top seven separate times. Its 23rd week broke the all-time Hot 100 record for most weeks at No. 1.
How many songs have been No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2026? Thirteen songs have topped the Hot 100 in 2026 through the chart dated October 31. Eleven reached No. 1 for the first time this year. The other two, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia”, were carried over from the 2025 holiday season and fall.
How many No. 1 songs does Taylor Swift have in 2026? Four: “The Fate of Ophelia”, “Opalite”, “I Knew It, I Knew You” from the Toy Story 5 soundtrack, and “Patient Zero”. Together they held No. 1 for eight weeks. “I Knew It, I Knew You” was her 15th Hot 100 No. 1, the third-most of any artist.
Which 2026 No. 1 songs debuted at No. 1? Eight: Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might”, Harry Styles’ “Aperture”, BTS’s “Swim”, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drop Dead”, Drake’s “Janice STFU”, Ariana Grande’s “Hate That I Made You Love Me”, and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “Patient Zero”. None of the eight spent more than three weeks at No. 1.
What record did Choosin’ Texas break? It broke the record for the most total weeks at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard reported the record with the song’s 23rd week on top, passing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, whose weeks at No. 1 were accumulated across several holiday seasons. Through the chart dated October 31, 2026, “Choosin’ Texas” has 25 weeks at No. 1.
